A year and a half ago, Bob Shor’s diabetic dad asked him if he had seen his dad take his insulin. Bob’s answer, “No, I didn’t see you take your meds” was interpreted by his father as “No, you haven’t taken them.” His dad overdosed that day, which Bob says was the reason he and his brother Rotem created MediSafe, a collaborative app that helps keep track of long-term medication.
The app will remind users when it’s time to take meds, and display dosage and an image of what the meds actually look like. There’s even a refill reminder and personalized information and details about taking the drug and effects. But the big feature is the app’s collaborative nature.
“The secret sauce is that we sync family members,” Bob told us during a conversation over the phone. “We notify other family members if [he] did not take his meds.” The alerts happen in realtime, so whomever is helping administer the meds can immediately notify the user to remind them or intervene.
Bob says they’ll launch a new version with added features each month, and MediSafe’s website says the service will be available to those without smartphones through “automated phone system and SMS” in 2014.
Source: MediSafe Project
When he was eight, Eli Milchman came home from frolicking in the Veld one day and was given an Atari 400. Since then, his fascination with technology has made him an intrepid early adopter of whatever charming new contraption crosses his path. He calls San Francisco home, where he works as a journalist and photographer. Eli has contributed to the pages of Wired.com and BIKE Magazine, among others. Hang with him on Twitter.
